Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Setup pics:

Overview: the tall pipe will be rerouted and shortened to other tank that will sit on top of this one.


Fish tank: fish can swim around middle pipe, no other use for it and had to plug the hole. Later realized I could have used it instead of making the other hole higher up (facepalm).


Dual water pumps:


Pipe support bracket with artistic wave painting:


Grow bed with J-siphon:


Brackets securing fish tank to grow bed: one on each side, secured with eyebolts and nuts


Electrical bucket-Inside: bricks to keep it from blowing over


Electrical bucket-outside and covered: keep out the elements


Note: I just got the other duckweed tank yesterday so no pics yet. It will mostly sit on top of the fish tank to provide shade. The pipe is getting in the way of that so I may extend the pipe out more or keep the tank at an angle off-center. Doesn't look like it will offset the weight much. Which is better?

Tanks:
100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for sump
50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for fish tank
50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for grow bed
50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for duckweed bed

Water Flow:
This employs a two pump setup for failsafe water movement.
Water is pumped up from the sump to the duckweed tank.
Water overflows from the duckweed tank into the fish tank.
Water overflows from the fish tank into the grow bed.
Water siphons from the grow bed back into the sump tank.

Grow Bed:
Media is using acrylic gems made for fish tanks.

2016-05-03 I just started running water through it about a week ago and put fish in 3 days ago. Put in 10 tiny goldfish. The next day they were all in the sump so that took a while to net them and put back into the top tank. I put shade cloth around the fish tank outlet so that doesn't reoccur. I only found 8 fish though to put back in top. I didn't see the other two in the sump or growbed. Maybe they're there and camouflaged or maybe a bird got them. The next day one fish quit moving, so I'm down to 7.

I put seeds in a day or two after starting the water but no sprouts yet. Is it too cold? 79F now with the cold front yesterday it seemed but it's been 60's - 80's night/day.

..
Duck weed is such a.pain..
The plants shed fine hair roots and the weed invades everything...
..

I had it once in the past but never had a specific tank for it so I wasn't able to get it to do much. I figured I'd do half the tank with duckweed and half with floating leafy things. The way this year's been going, it's already May and the weather hasn't heated up enough for duckweed though.

Two fish went belly up. I only view 1 or 2 others now. A couple were the same color as the tanks so they may still be in there, hard to tell. I went ahead and converted the fish tank obstacle into a secondary overflow since the water is closer to the top than I would prefer it to be. For the main drain from the fish tank, I added a shade cloth filter over the intake and removed the top extension on the tee so it can be an overflow as well. I put 10 more tiny goldfish in yesterday. The other tank came in and I now have it crossways over the fish tank but waiting until rain can fill it.


Here are the first sprouts now coming up (I had almost given up hope on those seeds.)

That media sure gets your attention . Glad to see the plants are taking off .

A little late but an update. The acrylic is pricey so I finally gave in and filled around the pots with lava rock. Think I started with 10 goldfish and had 6 bigger goldfish last I counted them all a year or more ago. Since then I put shade cloth over the fish tank (which prevented the water surface from freezing recently, bonus!) and at some point, saw a tiny fry in the bottom sump tank. That means at some point, my fish thought it optimal to reproduce! It also means as a fry, he survived going into the ebb/flow growbed and sucked into the siphon to the sump tank. I don't really know how many fry survived, I did see a couple up top in the fish tank at one point. I haven't seen the one in the bottom again but I put a pinch of food in there when I feed now anyhow. This past year I started messing with vertical pvc towers and almost got beyond saplings. This year I'll try them on timers so they don't get water logged. I threw mint in a number of months ago and it is surviving the winter freezes with the single aquarium heater nearby them where the water enters the growbed.